The Niche Hikkaduwa HIKKADUWA

The Niche sits on a 40-acre working cinnamon estate on the edge of Hikkaduwa Lake, and its position on the water is the first thing to establish: the villa holds the largest lagoon frontage in the area, a stretch of still water that fills the view from the pool, the jetty, the deck chairs, and most of the bedrooms, and that shifts through the day from silver to deep blue depending on the light and the cloud. The estate is a functioning cinnamon plantation, and guests who walk the grounds in the early morning find themselves in the kind of tropical landscape that the word lush does not quite cover: a 40-acre canopy of cinnamon trees, fruit palms, and dense undergrowth with birdlife moving through it at every hour.